U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,250 to Luebrecht discloses a lift truck including a monomast comprising an outer, movable mast mounted to telescope over an inner mast which is fixed to a frame. Each mast is configured to have a substantially continuous, unitary tubular body to provide strength for resisting torsional and bending loads applied to the mast.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,496 to Klopfleisch et al. discloses a materials handling vehicle including a telescoping monomast structure supporting a vertically movable platform assembly. The platform assembly supports a pair of extendable forks carried by a fork carriage assembly. An auxiliary lift cylinder is provided to move the forks vertically relative to the platform assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,187 to Dammeyer et al. discloses a fork lift truck including a mast assembly formed by a pair of stationary channel members and nested movable channel members. A pair of forks is supported on a fork carriage that is mounted to the mast assembly by a scissors reach mechanism. The scissors reach mechanism is supported to a vertically movable carriage assembly located between the channel members of the mast assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,851,915 to Warner et al. discloses a load handling device for an industrial truck. The load handling device is described as comprising a lift carriage that is guided on the outer sides of a lift frame by rollers. Load forks are supported on a reach carriage, and the reach carriage includes guide rails engaged with rollers on the outer sides of the lift carriage. A pair of hydraulic cylinders actuate the reach carriage to displace the load forks in a longitudinal direction of the industrial truck.
An improved fork carriage apparatus for a materials handling vehicle is desired to provide a reach mechanism on a materials handling vehicle having a monomast structure without adversely increasing the overall longitudinal length of the vehicle.